Kenya: Embu County Council in Appeal for Financial Help

MORE than 77 per cent of the money to fund operations at the Embu County Council is expected to come from the central government.

Chairman of the finance and general purpose committee John Ng'ura has expressed dissatisfaction with this state of affairs. He said if the government delays in disbursing allocations to the council through the Local Authority Transfer Fund the council's operations will come to a standstill.

Reading this year's budget estimates for the council's financial year 2012/2013, Ngu'ra said the council expects to collect Sh100,556,980 and that of this, Sh77,190,074 is expected to come from the government. He said the council is targeting Sh22,852,801 from local resources with Sh514,105 expected to come from land rates. He said they expect to come out of these challenges through payment of rates arrears by defaulters which have accumulated to Sh3.4 million.

Ng'ura said for the council to be self-reliant, alternative sources of income should be sought. He said more than Sh70 million of the revenue expected will be used in recurrent expenditures and maintenance while only Sh32.2 million will be used in carrying out various projects planned by the council. Among the projects to be undertaken by the council is repair of roads, building classes in primary schools and secondary schools, polytechnics, building of markets, rehabilitation of the Administration Police line, repair of council vehicles and buying new ones.

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